Alternate dissociation of the screw dislocations in a (0 0 1) buried small-angle twist boundary in silicon

Abstract

The square dislocation network of a (0 0 1) buried small-angle boundary in silicon was observed by dark-field transmission electron microscopy to examine the structures of more than 100 dissociated dislocation segments. Images were taken with g = (2 2 0), using a many-beam case along the reciprocal lattice row. Dissociation occurs on alternate close-packed planes without systematic rule, although a degree of ordering is taking place. Most of the dislocation segments have lengths equal to half of the square network period. Image simulation studies revealed that their experimental contrasts cannot be explained from the usual assumption of straight dislocations running in an infinite crystal. However, if these dislocations are supposed close and parallel to a nearby free surface, a reasonable agreement is found between the micrographs and the simulated images. A three-dimensional elastic model is proposed to explain the contrasts of the dislocation network.

Keywords:

• dislocations
• interface
• electron microscopy
• silicon
• elastic field simulation

Acknowledgements

We thank Mrs. K. Rousseau who initiated this work through the preparation of the plan view sample and CNRS (Paris) for financial support.